State's largest ethanol plant is up and running

The ribbon-cutting ceremony was Friday, although the plant, which will process 21 million bushels of corn per year, has been running for about two weeks.

Neil Koehler, president and chief executive of publicly traded Pacific Ethanol, said starting up the Stockton plant puts the company on track to produce 220 million gallons of ethanol annually, "and dramatically increases the availability of renewable fuels produced in the state of California."

In addition to ethanol, the plant will annually produce 500,000 tons of wet distiller's grains, a waste product of the ethanol manufacturing process that is used as a high-protein feed product for dairies.

The Stockton area has taken a disproportionate hit in home foreclosures and its economy has suffered. Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, said he regarded the $150 million investment in the plant as an economic boost for the region.

"The opening of this new ethanol facility not only advances the use of cleaner, renewable sources of energy, it is creating green collar jobs and bringing economic opportunities to the region," McNerney said.

Construction of the plant generated 200 construction and service-related jobs and represented a boost to the economy of from $200 million to $250 million, the company said.

The plant will employ 38 workers.

Pacific Ethanol received $642,000 in energy efficiency rebates from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. for the use of energy-efficient technologies in the building of the plant. The company estimates an annual energy cost savings of approximately $1.3 million with a reduction in greenhouse gases of 771 tons.

Pacific Ethanol completed the Port of Stockton facility while it was forced by financial pressure to suspend construction on a plant in the Imperial Valley. Pacific Ethanol shares closed on the Nasdaq Stock Market at $1.07 on Monday, up 12 cents.

Pacific Ethanol also has ethanol plants in Madera; Boardman, Ore.; and Burley, Idaho. It owns a 42 percent interest in Front Range Energy, LLC, which owns an ethanol plant in Windsor, Colo.

Its chairman is Bill Jones, the former Republican California secretary of state and member of the state Assembly.

 

 

 

E-mail George Raine at graine@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle